Thursday, December 13, 2012

Last weekend I mounted up Everything Bag V1.0 with some P-clips on the commuter bike. Since then I've put a little over 100 miles on it. So far, so good, for commuting and a bit of snow covered rocky dirt road exploring.... with 35 mm slicks.....
Works great. It might wiggle a bit more than if it were mounted too real water bottle bosses, but it stays put.
Today I took the wrong way home to celebrate the end of the semester.
Versions 3, 4, and 5 are being made by the little elves at the North Pole right now.
The hardware store only had up to 1" P clips, which fit on the Fisticuff fork, but I'll need to order something bigger for the suspension forks. The plan is to buy a few common P clip sizes in bulk and have them available to customers so its ready to go, right out of the box for your needs.
This winter I fully plan on bringing Thermos lunches to school in the Everything Bag - just for testing and marketing purposes, of course.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

After hearing "internet forum rumors" that the Salsa Anything Cage was commonly breaking after under 1000 miles of Tour Divide style riding, I was riding and thinking one day... and it came to me. The idea of using a framesheet rather than a waterbottle cage was inspired by an impromptu repair by none other than Fixie Dave. And so I realized that a plastic framesheet with a fabric and webbing harness would work splendidly well and avoid the major weaknesses of the Anything Cage. Yield stress is not a concern for this application - aluminum tubing is plenty strong as are fabric and plastic. The problem will be with fatigue loading. Here, the fabric and plastic will be much more resistant to fatigue loading due to the material properties. Also, when the bike is laid down and the cage hits the ground, a soft fabric bag will just squish and be fine, while a metal cage will risk being bent.
And so the idea was born. Two prototypes followed and testing began. One ride confirmed that it held the cargo well and was easy to handle.
The bags started out with standard cam buckles on them, since side release buckles don't hold well over tight radii. They later were upgraded to metal spring loaded cam buckles for the ultimate in cinching power and ease.
Later I rode the bags up and down The Ribbon. Most riders shuttle to the top of the Ribbon... and most bring full suspension. But I proceeded to start at the bottom with a fat front and two liters of water strapped securely into prototype Everything Bags. After pedaling up a long ways, it was finally time to descend and really test the bags out, at 25 miles an hour on slickrock. The did well. So well, I didn't hardly notice their presence. The Ribbon wanders for a ways through typical rocky Grand Junction singletrack which finally converges to a long slickrock uphill. Sit and spin or stand and mash, or change it up a little - you'll be going up for a while. Once at the top, its time to wish your brake rotors had a coolant system as you smoke your way back down going close to 10 times as fast as you did on the way up. Its a good test for new bottle bags.
A bag then got sent off to SW Utah to get more mileage on it, and its finally time to go public with them. So, if you have a Salsa or Surly fork with the 3 bottle cage bosses in the fork, you now have a fatigue resistant option that should last longer.

So there you have it. I'm slammed with school and wedding planning until finals week (Dec 10-15) during which I could sew a little, then not until January after the honeymoon.

If you want to try out an early model Everything Bag, they'll start at $50 each including 6 fender washers and 3 long bolts to securely mount them on your fork.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

No, not the spacecraft headed to the Pluto-Charon system. Just new terrestrial horizons.
The latest thing out of the sweatshop is a pair of identical frame bags, bound for a father-son tour of the Great Divide route. Full kit will follow for them, but now they can start riding the frame bags while waiting on the rest. These babies turned out great. I got a little bit of VX52 in, and its super tough. Those tube panels will last a looooong time. Dual compartment, left map pocket with orange inner panel, reflective, hydration port. This is one of the classic option sets.

And here's the latest in the full suspension frame bag department, recently finished with a short desert trip.
I'll go ahead and risk a brief shot of a new prototype replacement for the breakable Anything Cages.

Great times, lots to do, and I actually got out for a 5 hour mountain bike ride yesterday, thanks to my amazing fiance. Now my legs are sore and happy. Earlier this week I went for a spontaneous 1 hour trail run..... in Carhartts and Teva sandals. It was wonderful.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Early this summer, a Co Conspirator was forward thinking enough to pin down Robin and put a twist tie around her ring finger.... after a bit more dating to give her time to get used to the idea, and for her to meet my family, and for me to ask her dad, I got that critical dimension and ordered a ring. After looking at that shiny little thing for a couple days on my desk, it was finally Saturday. We headed out towards Rattlesnake Arches in Fruita - second only to Arches National Park for arch coolness. Its a fairly long hike.

After about an hour of nice desert hiking, it was time for another shade break and lunch. We came across a perfect spot where the trail went right by a cliff, and there was really good shade. I knew I had to ask her then... all the sudden I got nervous... I spun her around a bit and bumbled around a lot, spun her around more to camouflage the jitters, then said something like, "Robin, I'd like to love you, protect you, provide for you the rest of my life. Will you marry me?"

And much to my everlasting delight, she said "YES!!!!!!!!!!"

AAAAAAAAnnnd we hugged and smiled, a LOT. We decided early on while dating to save our first kiss for our wedding day, so that was avoided. Is it wrong to kiss before marriage? I think it isn't necessarily, but it does seem like a wise choice for a few reasons. One of the big points of dating is to point each other to Christ, and let God figure out the time interval of our relationship. If it seems wisest to part ways and not get married, it is my job as a man to protect my sister in Christ. (1 Timothy 5:2)

Anyway, there we were, grinning from ear to ear, about 5 inches apart, center to center.... after a while, I pulled a ring out of my pocket, conveniently cloaked in a Platypus hydration bladder bite valve cover from an extra winter insulation kit.... padded with a bit of napkin so it wouldn't rattle.....

It fit, thanks to good sneaking by my Co Conspirators.

It went something like this.... below the cliff and tower in the next picture.

We continued on for a while, being excited and happy together, talking about life together, a bit about wedding planning, when to get married,.....

Anyway, we didn't make it in to the arches, so... oh dear, we'll just have to go back! As it was, we were still sitting down to a Thai dinner at 8 pm....

Monday, August 6, 2012

After about 6 years of being told that Vestal Peak's Wham Ridge is a must do climb, and 6 years after climbing my first Weminuche Wilderness peaks, it finally happened. We hiked in the 8 or so miles to camp below the peak, and blasted off the next morning fairly early. Thankfully thunderstorms were moving in very late in the day.
With four people, we brought two ropes and racks and simul-climbed the first 400 to 600 feet of the steep terrain... the fun thing was, we simul-climbed right next to each other... not the best idea in case of a fall, but that wasn't really an option anyway. Running it out 60 feet, casually looking down at the last piece, and not really caring was commonplace.
We climbed 2 or 3 normal belayed pitches after the long simul-climb, after which the rock got more blocky and loose, so we unroped for the last few hundred feet to the top. That was the scary part for me, blocks, ledges, wandering route finding, and that awkward balance - a rope slows down the group and might knock rocks off but helps the mental game and safety game. Anyway, I was relieved to top out the 4th class junk near the top and reach the summit.
After hearing rumor for years that the "Dues Collector" descent to the Arrow-Vestal saddle was "horrendous," our friend that had tried both descents informed us that the descent to the Vestal-West Trinity saddle was much better, we took that and it was actually pretty nice. Rough and steep, but secure and not too exposed... after the top of Wham Ridge, it felt casual.
Then we got to walk through some Tolkien-esque landscape below Vestal back to camp.
The hike partway out that afternoon and the next day was long, made us all sore, but overall was uneventful. This trip was a good push, a reminder of why I like ultralight backpacking - without climbing gear, and a great time with friends exploring creation.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

EDITED 9/4/12 - Pricing back to normal listed prices - I'm plenty busy right now. Thanks!Temporary price drops for summer, yes, all of summer:Frame Bag base price $100Seat Bag $90Bar Bag $65That's $10 off each of the big items, or a total of $30 off the full collection - that'll buy you a bit more trip food!I have more time to sew in the summer than in the school year so may as well use it.There's a few bar bags already in stock ready to ship out too!Here's the latest:16" Karate Monkey, map pocket, tapered and padded, hydration tube hole, bright orange lining. Came out super nice.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

With two days off work and an itch to wiggle I ran off into the Grenadier Range of the Weminuche Wilderness area with a light pack and a plan....
At 4:20 AM in Vestal Creek basin, I started walking... Three peaks were on the menu for the day - The Trinity Traverse, served with loads of Class 2+ and Class 3 scrambling, with a bit of Class 4 chimney, tons of exposure, and high weather commitment... not the best place to be in a storm.

After topping out the last peak, the descent was supposed to be a straightforward Class 2 descent... and it was, for a while. So I took some flower pictures... then I got off route and things got scary again.

There was some pretty lichen - the color variety here is neat.

Then I got back below treeline, had a nap while the thunderstorms came through intent on having the rest of the day off, had dinner at 2:00 PM, read my Bible for a while, then got bored...... Arrow was calling, and I answered... and started walking in earnest, this time at 4:20 PM.
The exposure on Arrow freaked me out enough I barely took any pictures, and just climbed as fast as possible.... besides being scared I also didn't want to downclimb that Class 3 - 4 mess in the dark. The route up Arrow follows the prominent ramp on the left side.
On the summit I snapped two pictures, took a shot of honey, crossed my fingers, and dropped in... on the way down I ended up on a different route variation, this time on the outside of the prominent ramp instead of the inside. It wasn't really any easier...
So after four scrambling peaks and a lot of scare in one day, I ate my last dinner and decided to hike out a day early. Thank you Lord for safety and the beauty of Your Creation!